At the beginning of the novel when Edna's husband, Leonce Pontellier, returns from Klein's hotel, he checks in on the children and believing that one of them has a fever he tells his wife, Edna. She says that the child was fine when he went to bed, but Mr. Pontellier is certain that he isn't mistaken: "He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children." (7) Because of the reprimand, Edna goes into the next room to check on the children. "She soon came back and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning her head down on the pillow.... She began to cry a little, and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her peignoir." (7) This is the first incident in which we see Edna's depression. At first, it doesn't seem like it is that significant, but Edna then goes out and sits on the porch and cries some more: " The tears came so fast to Mrs. Pontellier's eyes that the damp sleeve of her peignoir refused to dry them.... Turning, she trust her face, steaming and wet into the bend of her a

She carried in her hands a thin handkerchief, which she tore into ribbons, rolled into a ball, and flung from her. Once she stooped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying there, she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it. But her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the glittering circlet. (50-51)

She wants to do damage to something; it is her way of releasing the aggression and anger that her husband has caused her: " In a sweeping passion she seized a glass vase from the table and flung it upon the tiles of the hearth. She wanted to destroy something. The clash and the clatter were what she wanted to hear." (51)

Edna does what she wants in the days that follow, though some days she is more happy than on others: "There were days when she was unhappy, she did not know why, - when it did not seem worth while to be glad or sorry, to be alive or dead; when life appeared to her like a grotesque pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling blindly toward inevitable annihilation." (56) Edna doesn't understand what is affecting her so much, but she finds comfort in solitude: "When Edna was last alone, she breathed a big, genuine sigh or relief. A feeling that was unfamiliar but very delicious came over her." (69) She likes to be alone when she sketches or paints; it is soothing to her. She seeks solitude when she's experiencing her complicating emotions; "Or else she stayed indoors and nursed a mood with which she was becoming too familiar for her own comfort and peace of mind. It was not despair; but it seemed to her as life were passing by, leaving its promise broken and unfulfilled." (70) In the solitude she starts to distance herself from those around her that love and care for her. Her moving from her husband's house is the first step in this; it distances her from her husband's control and everything that is his: "Instinct had prompted her to put away her husband's bounty in casting off her allegiance." (76) At the dinner party she gives before she moves, she is surrounded by those that care for her, but even then she wants to be alone: "But as she sat there amid her guests, she felt the old ennui overtaking her; the hopelessness which so often assailed her, which came upon her like an obsession, like something extraneous, independent of violation." (84)

When Edna returns home later that day, she finds out that Robert is leaving

Some common words found in the essay are:
Madame Lebrun, Leonce Pontellier, Grand Isle, Doctor Mandelet, Robert Edna, Robert Lebrun, Edna Pontellier, Edna Pontellier's, Madame Antoine's, Kate Chopin, edna goes, robert leaves, mind gone, edna's body, beginning novel, sleeve peignoir, edna returns, doctor mandelet, edna pontellier,
Approximate Word count = 1636
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)